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July 12, 2016

No Weeping Now with Parade

WE ARRIVED in Northern Ireland during Parade Season and every fourth town within easy driving distance has a parade on July 12th. While the drums beat, I spent part of a quiet morning looking out at part of the 350 acres that comprised RAF Greencastle, lands surrounding the cottage where we are staying.

In the 1940s, heavy bombers lumbered overhead. Only a handful of the locals remember those WWII days. I think J. R. Walsh captures what I feel in his poem "No Weeping Now".

I went back to the lonely Wolds, the fens and the empty sky. I saw the tall gaunt elms, heard the calling rooks, how time had passed me by. Grass had grown on the runways, in the hangars stood rusting ploughs; The dispersal points were empty, just starlings and grazing cows. The Watch Office stood deserted, Or maybe the ghosts of men: Stood and watched as I walked remembering, For I'd said "I'll come back again". The windsock hung in tatters, forlorn in the cold damp air, Then I thought, "What does it matter?" there is nobody here to care. The crew huts were but ruins, rotting timbers and sagging floors; Not a voice to break the silence, just the wind and the creaking doors. Then I recalled these once were billets, Full of life and the noise of men: With the crackling roar of Merlins, Or the whispering by scratch of a pen. So I stood quite still to listen; was there a message there for me? In the shadows would they remember, had they left me a sign to see? If they had it was too elusive, made dim by the veil of years; And I recalled all the purpose and courage, till my eyes were blurred by tears. I turned away downhearted for this was not the field I had known; Not the brave bold home of my memories; fool I was for the years had flown.

+++ Photo of 5yo Dylan standing next to remnants of the chopped up main runway of RAF Greencastle. See more photos of the area in my Northern Ireland photo album.

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No Weeping Now with Parade

WE ARRIVED in Northern Ireland during Parade Season and every fourth town within easy driving distance has a parade on July 12th. While the drums beat, I spent part of a quiet morning looking out at part of the 350 acres that comprised RAF Greencastle, lands surrounding the cottage where we are staying.